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The Messenger
|Next_book = }} is the sixth book in the Gabriel Allon series. An attack is made on the Vatican, Ari Shamron is injured in an attempted assassination, and Gabriel mounts an operation to punish those responsible. The Briefcase In October, a recruiter and talent spotter for al-Qaeda running from an agent of the Office in London steps in front of a delivery truck. His shadow picks up the dead man's briefcase and laptop computer. When the computer reaches King Saul Boulevard the next morning, it is found to be a gold mine of information: personnel, accounts and surveillance photos of planned operations. The collection includes images of the Pope and the public areas of Vatican City. Monsignor Luigi Donati, the Pope's private secretary, is coming to Israel to meet with Gabriel. The Attacks The next morning, Gabriel shows the pictures to Donati. Donati points out that the pictures were all taken during the Pope's general audience held each Wednesday. Gabriel responds that the current day is Tuesday. Donati decides to return to Rome immediately and tells Gabriel that he is to accompany him. In Rome, Gabriel meets with the Pope and with both Vatican and Italian security officers. On Wednesday morning, Gabriel identifies Ibrahim el-Banna, a Muslim visitor to the Vatican, as a potential threat. Gabriel goes to el-Banna's office, which he finds has been cleared out except for a single envelope on el-Banna's desk containing a declaration of war against the Catholic Church by the Brotherhood of Allah. Gabriel runs for the audience location at St. Peter's Basilica, but arrives too late. Three suicide bombers set off their bombs. They are followed by attacks by three men armed with RPG-7s which are aimed at the basilica. Pope Paul VII is severely injured. Meanwhile, Ibrahim el-Banna has slipped away from the Vatican to an apartment in Rome from which he expects to travel to Saudi Arabia; when he opens the apartment door, an explosion kills him. Gabriel is invited to meet with Pope Paul VII, who suggests that the search for the people who attacked the Vatican and him will soon be the responsibility of Gabriel and his associates. As they part, the Pope tells Gabriel that Francesco Tiepolo and Chiara both want to see him before he leaves Italy. Gabriel goes to Venice to see Chiara. They make love and he professes his love for her. Returning to Jerusalem, Gabriel finds Ari Shamron at his apartment. Ari tells Gabriel that Ibrahim el-Banna is linked to the Saudis. El-Banna's activities were at least partially funded by a Saudi operative named Ahmed bin Shafiq. Ari expresses his reluctance at having to share intelligence with other nations, but tells Gabriel to fly to Washington the next morning to brief the Americans. After discussing Gabriel's relationship with Chiara, Ari leaves in his armored vehicle with his bodyguards. A few minutes later, Gabriel hears an explosion. Gabriel finds Gilah Shamron in Ari's room at a hospital. Gilah is holding Ari's leather jacket with the mysterious tear. Gabriel tells her that her husband's car was attacked using a abnormally large bomb. Gilah says that their son and daughter are coming. She also tells Gabriel that Ari's cancer has returned. They discuss Gabriel's history as an assassin and the attack on Leah and Dani. As Gabriel is leaving to see the prime minister, Gilah tells him that Ari accidentally tore the jacket when he heard about Leah and Dani and the would never allow Gilah to repair the damage. She gives the jacket to Gabriel. Gabriel meets with the prime minister and Amos Sharret. The prime minister tells him that his mission is to track down and punish the people who attacked Ari Shamron. Amos tells Gabriel that his meeting with Adrian Carter has been moved from Washington to London. The Plans Gabriel meets Adrian Carter. They discuss Wahhabism and Ahmed bin Shafiq. Carter describes AAB Holdings of Riyadh and its chief executive officer, Abdul Aziz al-Bakari. Al-Bakari is the banker for the Saudi royal family. Gabriel notes that al-Bakari is an art collector. Carter tells Gabriel that the President of the United States wants a favor; he wants an agent inserted into the house of al-Bakari and, if the opportunity presents itself, for Ahmed bin Shafiq to be killed. Gabriel says he will recommend that the Office grant the favor. Gabriel assembles Group bin Shafiq. He visits Ari Shamron in the hospital; Ari objects to the Office doing Carter's work for him, but acquiesces. When Ari tells Gabriel to go home, where Chiara is waiting for him, Gabriel does. Preparation Gabriel visits Julian Isherwood and reminds him about having once seen an uncatalogued painting by Vincent van Gogh, Marguerite Gachet at Her Dressing Table, at a residence in Paris, France. Gabriel convinces Julian that he can retire after the operation is finished and move to France under an assumed name. Julian gives Gabriel the address. Gabriel visits Hannah Weinberg and convinces her to rent her Van Gogh to the Office. Gabriel flies back to the United States. He meets with Adrian Carter and they work together to recruit Sarah Bancroft, an art curator, to penetrate Abdul Aziz al-Bakari's organization to locate Ahmed bin Shafiq. Sarah goes to work for Julian. At night, Group bin Shafiq trains her at a safe house in Surrey, England while Gabriel cleans and restores the painting. Finally, Sarah asks what will happen when she identifies bin Shafiq. Gabriel tells her that she already knows; at the appropriate time, bin Shafiq will be killed. Deployment The operation begins when Julian Isherwood calls Andrew Malone, al-Bakari's art director and, over lunch, offers the painting to al-Bakari, specifing that al-Bakari must respond within seventy-two hours. Within those hours, Gabriel and his associates notice surveillance on Julian's gallery. The art director calls to say that al-Bakari is on his way. Abdul Aziz al-Bakari descends on Isherwood Fine Arts with an entourage of sixteen. He examines Marguerite Gachet, displays some acumen about Van Gogh and, looking at Sarah, says, "I'll take her." Gabriel arranges for proof of Malone violating his exclusive contract with al-Bakari to be sent to al-Bakari, who fires Malone and, as Gabriel had hoped, offers Malone's job to Sarah, inviting her to join him and his extended family on his yacht. Gabriel arranges with Adrian Carter to use a boat available from the CIA. Sarah flies from London to the Bahamas in the company of Wazar bin Talal. On the Alexandra, al-Bakari's yacht, all of her electronic and electrical items are confiscated by bin Talil and she is introduced to the extended family, including Manfred Wehrli, al-Bakari's Swiss Banker, who tells Sarah that when she is offered a job to ask for whatever she wants and al-Bakari will pay it. Gabriel and Group bin Shafiq watch the Alexandra from their clandestine boat. Sarah settled into a routine on the Alexandra, including calling Isherwood Fine Arts each day and receiving messages from Chiara, who was posing as a secretary. After several days, Abdul Aziz al-Bakari offers her a job as head of his art department. She made extreme demands which al-Bakari accepted and she was hired. In London, Julian Isherwood played the role of being upset that Sarah had left his employ. Gabriel was pensive because now that he had inserted Sarah into al-Bakari's network, he knew that he had to be able to get her out. The yacht arrives at Gustavia, Saint Barthélemy and Sarah is surprised when Nadia al-Bakari invites her to spend a day on the beach. Nadia asks seemingly innocent questions about Sarah's background. Sarah goes swimming near the beach and is approached by Yaakov, who asks about her safety and whether she has seen Ahmed bin Shafiq. He then tells her to swim away and tell anyone who asks that he was flirting with her. When Sarah returns to the beach, Nadia tells her not to speak with a stranger, especially a Jew. That evening, al-Bakari commandeers a restaurant for dinner. En route, they stop at a villa for drinks with a couple and Sarah thinks she recognizes bin-Shafiq, who is posing as a legitimate business associate of al-Bakari. Nadia asks why she is staring and Sarah responds that she is looking at Jean-Michel, the trainer. She pulls her hair off her neck in a signal, as agreed with Gabriel. That night, Sarah has trouble sleeping for the first time. The next morning, she pins her hair up and goes for a run with Jean-Michel. While running she sees members of Group bin Shafiq looking after her. After she and Jean-Michel eat breakfast ashore, Sarah uses buying a gift for al-Bakari as an excuse to leave a note about about bin-Shafiq in the store; Gabriel recovers the note. Gabriel's team rents a villa from which there can monitor bin-Shafiq's villa. During the day bin-Shafiq visits al-Bakari on the yacht. To positively identify bin-Shafiq, the Office needs a recording of his voice and the woman posing as his wife is the only one who uses the telephone. When the two go out for dinner that evening, Gabriel poses as a drunk and bumps into their table. Bib-Shafiq speaks and his voice is recorded. King Saul Boulevard verifies bin-Shafiq's identity. The Extraction Gabriel attempts to extract Sarah Bancroft from her position, but al-Bakari becomes suspicious and secretly moves Sarah to Switzerland. She is subjected to interrogation and breaks, but the Office agents catch up, kill the men holding her and free her. Redemption Gabriel and unidentified agents break into al-Bakari's Paris Mansion and recover the Van Gogh painting. Gabriel and Eli kill bin-Shafiq with a bomb in Cairo. Unidentified agents kill Abdul Aziz al-Bakari and two of his bodyguards in Cannes while Uzi Navot watches; al-Bakari's daughter screams for revenge. Gabriel tells Leah about his love for Chiara.